25 weeks along here and want to start brushing up on all the stuff about the actual labor and delivery. I had an awesome first birth experience having my daughter and I am really hoping for a natural, intervention free hospital birth after laboring at home for most of the labor.

However, I am not one of those people who thinks that all inductions and c-sections are horrible and that if you don't have a completely intervention free birth then you did something wrong and you should've just trusted your body more. I understand that things happen and sometimes we need medical interventions, and I want to understand the different things that could happen and when they are necessary and when they are NOT necessary and what are my options - what can I safely refuse and when is not safe to refuse an intervention?

I guess I'm mainly looking for a book that is not anti-doctor or anti-hospital but that IS pro-natural childbirth, while discussing interventions that could be necessary and helpful. A middle of the road approach I guess.

Can anyone recommend some books for me?

Thanks!

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loving being a stay at home wife to DH (married 4/11/09) and mommy to DD1 (10/4/10) and little DD2 (5/30/12) and expecting baby #3 in March!

I haven't read anything completely middle of the road but I've heard good things about the Lamaze book. I just read the mega-natural childbirth books and take what I can use and leave the rest. Henci Goer's Thinking Woman's Guide is very natural-birth-biased, but she cites tons of research, which I liked. Good luck!

Henci Goer's books are, IMO, biased toward natural birth and tend to paint hospital procedures in a bad light. I hoped it (Thinking Woman's Guide) would explain when and why interventions would be necessary but I didn't really get that. It was more why you shouldn't. It did help though because it definitely concreted in my mind my desire to avoid intervention, especially the epidural. One thing I didn't even think about until I read it was avoiding an IV. So glad I read that part and chose to go without it. No need for it if you are low risk and not getting an epidural or being induced.

For more unbiased, I like The Birth Book. It definitely has a natural/home birth slant but not in the scare tactic way of Goer's books. It gives a good overview of hospital procedures, although I don't remember it being super in depth. I am studying to be a doula, so I read a lot, and finding a good unbiased book is hard. I'd love it if someone wrote a book called "Hospital birth for the Natural Mama" or something like that. Hmmm...maybe I should do that!